David Nicholls' romantic tale about two Edinburgh University students was first published in 2009 and the following year won plenty of literary prizes. It tells the love story of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew and their on-off relationship, seen through the perspective of St Swithin's Day - or very close to it - across the years. St Swithin's Day is on July 15.

The novel has been transformed into a stunning Netflix series starring Ambika Mod as Emma Morley and Leo Woodall as Dexter Mayhew. Not long after the novel was published in 2009, the Mail realised the story's popular appeal and in 2010 we named it our novel of the year in partnership with the city's Waterstones store. Mr Nicholls' novel was to win much bigger prizes, but he agreed to make the trip to Oxford to accept his trophy.

Here is our conversation from 2010 when Mr Nicholls was 43 and living in London with his partner Hannah and their two children. the excitement surrounding the novel, which initially sold more than one million copies in 33 different countries, had left him with no time to focus on any new writing projects. Mr Nicholls, an accomplished screenwriter, penned the screenplay for the film of the book starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, and was delighted to see members of the cast reading copies of the novel on set.

During his visit he told us: "If you get a hit like this you have to make the most of it but you’ve got to accept that it will not happen again – it’s hard not to get panicky abou.